The annual summer "nagashi-somen" (flowing bamboo-flume noodles) event was held at the foot of Mt. Tennozan in Oyamazaki, Oyamazaki Town, Kyoto Prefecture. Participants crafted their own tableware from bamboo they cut down themselves, deepening the bond between parent and child while enjoying the pleasures of outdoor activity.
The event has been held annually for about 20 years by the Oyamazaki Town Council for the Sound Development of Youth, in collaboration with the Oyamazaki Bamboo Grove Volunteers. On August 1, 2026, approximately 30 local parents and children took part.
The council's chairman (74 years old) opened the event by expressing his hope that it would serve as an opportunity for parents and children to bond. After receiving instructions from the volunteers on how to handle tools like bamboo-splitting knives, the participants divided into groups to cut down bamboo stalks. As they put their strength into the blades and the hollow interior of the bamboo was revealed, some remarked, "It looks like Princess Kaguya might pop out." Cheers erupted when a bamboo stalk, roughly 20 meters long, fell with a loud crash.
Using saws and hatchets, the participants fashioned the felled bamboo into plates and chopsticks. Encouraged by volunteers—who advised them to apply pressure on the push stroke when sawing—the children eagerly crafted more and more tableware, saying, "I want to make more."
When the somen noodles, prepared at the Oyamazaki Town Health Center, arrived and began flowing down the green bamboo flume, the children all reached out with their chopsticks at once.
